Mothers' last gift
by Rabidchipmonk of doom
Summary: Ed is sick with his mother's final gift - her disease - and Roy just can't live without him, the illness finally takes it's toll and Roy is desperate to be with his lover. One-shot, Roy/Edward pairing. Romeo and Juliet style from a request from my best friend! 23/06/12: Story revised and loose ends tied.


Warnings: Roy/ Ed, death, depressing (I think… .)

Disclaimer – I do not own Fullmetal alchemist.

Please Review

-XxX-

Roy gently lifted Edward up by his armpits. Ed's soft t-shirt pulled slightly revealing a concave stomach and jutting ribs as Roy leant him gently against his chest. The older alchemist puffed up the pillows residing on the bed. Ed grunted softly as he was laid down.

"Is that ok? You comfy?" he asked gently in a voice that he used a lot at the moment – a little like talking to a wounded animal.

Ed nodded gently, his face was as pale as ash and his hand shook slightly with the exertion of staying awake.

"I'm cold…" Ed muttered, shivering. He hated to admit weakness, but he wanted to stay with Roy as long as he could. He was scared, terrified of dying he admitted to himself.

Roy glanced towards the empty fireplace; walked over and began piling logs into the grate. He snapped his fingers and let out a small smile of satisfaction that he was helping relieve the pain of his lover and the fireplace was lit in a warm glow. The fire was usually lit but Roy hadn't gotten around to lighting it earlier.

He glanced back at Edward as he got up. Ed's eyes were closed and a pained frown had overtaken his face. His breathing had shallowed and hitched every few breaths his skeletal body took. It usually meant that the painkiller had stopped working, the amount and increased recently and the length of time it worked was decreasing rapidly. Not a good sign.

"Ed? You ok?" Ed grunted weakly, "Do you want some painkiller?" Ed grunted again with a small nod of his head. Roy grabbed the morphine from the bedside table, remembering how it had become apart of the bedrooms accessories.

-XxX-

'BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…" Roy's fingers slowly inched towards each other. 'BEEP…BEEP…' He pried them apart and spread his fingers evenly on his lap. 'BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…' The noise of the heart monitor was getting very annoying, his fingers closed in, ready to snap and blow up the annoying monitor when the monotone beeping finally sped up. Roy grew excited, Ed was waking!

Ed mumbled something incomprehensible as his eyes opened, drifting back to consciousness. It took him a moment to wake up enough to take notice of his surroundings.

"Ed? Baby? What happened?" Roy asked his lover. Ed looked a little confused for a second, his face scrunching up in concentration. Ed looked cute when he thought, even when he was as pale as the moon.

"Not been feeling good…" he muttered in an almost inaudible voice, weakness threatening to pull him down to the darkest depths again. Roy pressed the call button which was stuck to the bedside table.

A doctor knocked on the door and stepped inside.

"How are you feeling Mr. Fullmetal sir?" Ed's face darkened. "We've never had so many alchemists in at once!" His face lit up in chubby delight. A metaphorical light bulb lit above his head like a shining halo as he busied himself with the various machines around his patient. He checked the level of the painkillers in the saline bags and the areas that they entered the young mans body.

Ed grunted tiredly.

"I see… We've done some tests and have come to a conclusion for your collapse yesterday." He said proudly, "We believe that the fits and sickness are connected to a hereditary disease, passed down by your mother's side. We believe that the fainting spells are connected to the strain on you're body." He said looking a bit upset as his fat chin wobbled slightly. "We couldn't find what the disease is though."

Roy thought about what the Doctor said for a moment,

"His mother died from it…" He looked straight into the eyes of the doctor.

"How long?" Tears were now threatening to pour down his face, he felt useless, his lover was dying and all he could do was ask how long he had left.

"We estimate a month, a month and a half at most if we remove the automail, that's sapping a lot of his energy. I can prescribe some liquid morphine to inject into his I.V. that he will need to use; it'll ease his pain and some of his symptoms. I will leave you now, Mr. Fullmetal will have to stay here overnight and then you can take him home."

Roy felt useless… especially as the rain streamed down the windows. He couldn't save his lover. Ed had fallen asleep but had a good idea of what was wrong with him. He just hoped that Roy could forgive him.

-XxX-

Roy carefully measured out the morphine and injected it into the I.V. Even though Ed protested greatly at the beginning he had to keep the I.V in, he had always hated needles and preferred not to look at it. It made him feel sick. Ed shuddered slightly at the feel of the liquid entering his veins before slowly the pain dulled in his lungs.

"Can you keep down some stew?" Roy asked, concerned about the amount of pain that had been etched on his lovers face.

"Yeah… I think so…" Ed muttered softly and smiled a weak smile. He always felt dazed, sleepy and happy after the morphine entered his body and he was almost capable of stringing a sentence together.

Roy made sure that Edward was comfortable before hurrying down to the kitchen, not wanting to be away from his lover for too long. He wanted to stay with his Ed, but he had to leave him alone at moments.

He pulled out some frozen stew – sent by Winry – and pushed the frozen liquid into a bowl. He clicked his fingers and the stew heated up to his desired temperature, taking two spoons he used one to double check the temperature. He put down the used spoon and picked up some napkins and walked upstairs.

-XxX-

They had gone to Winry when Ed had been diagnosed. She had been shocked and cried for a good hour before coming to her senses and asked what she could do to help.

She didn't particularly like the fact that Ed was with Roy, her parents murderer, but she would put up with him if he made Ed happy.

She had agreed with the doctor about the energy consumption that Ed's auto mail had. They had disconnected the metal from Ed's body that evening.

Winry had been expecting a visit from them at some point anyway and had helped her Grandmother to prepare Ed's favourite stew. Ed left in a wheelchair with enough stew to last a decade on his lap, Roy pushing it down the lane towards the train station. That had been the last time they had seen the girl, Ed's strength no longer accommodating the traveling and Winry was overloaded with work.

-XxX-

Edward coughed, blood splattering his fingers as he struggled to stay aware of his surroundings, the room span as he tried to call for Roy. He heard the stairs creaking and sighed a wet sigh of relief before the darkness overtook him, he sunk into inky oblivion.

"Here you go Ed…" Roy said cheerily as he pushed the bedroom door open with his back, he liked it when Ed responded, usualy after the morphine, it was almost like Ed was back with him. He dropped the tray and stew splattered all over the carpet and furniture as Roy ran forward to his unconscious lover with blood dribbling down his chin and out of his nose.

"Ed? Edward? Ed, baby, come back to me!" He screamed, it had only been a month since Ed was diagnosed and Ed was stronger than the doctor thought – he had to be- he had survived murderers, being sent through the gate… and Roy had just got him back…

Tears streamed down Roy's face as he tried to rouse the unconscious boy. He pulled his 'phone out of his pocket with jerky movements and pressed speed dial one. The 'phone ringed slowly and loudly, as if mocking his moment of panic. He prayed that the 'phone was going to be answered, the ringing stopped and all of a sudden he was spurting out what had happened in one sentence, before hysterically repeating what he had said.

-XxX-

Roy screamed at the doctors as Edward convulsed on the hospital bed, suddenly he was deadly still as the heart monitor flat lined. Roy nearly fainted, his lover was dead. Dead! He started hyperventilating and one of the nurses outside took pity on the man. She stepped in and guided Roy out of the room, away from his dead lover.

Nurses shouted "CLEAR!" from the room behind him. The nurse sat him down in a chair and promised to return in a moment. Roy nodded on automatic, but stood up moments after she turned her back.

-XxX-

He walked out of the hospital in a state of shell shock and ambled down the street before he reached a slightly risky looking pharmacy. He entered and walked over to a rotund man in a stained white tank top and tracksuit bottoms. He looked around but didn't see anything, he knew this was in the bad part of town, a couple of streets behind the local park.

"I'll have three bottles of you're strongest stuff…" He murmured. The man didn't look shocked and smirking.

"You wanna die? You only need one of these…" he rubbed his greasy palms on his bottoms, cash only mate, don't need any of them state blokes coming round." He grinned, he dealt with people like this young man quite often and had never been traced back to with each murder, he was careful.

"You'll be snuffed in less than half an hour." Roy nodded and placed a fistful of cash on the counter and walked out. Behind him the rotund man was grinning as he counted the money muttering to himself. Roy had given him three or four times the amount needed from the bottle.

Roy walked to the nearby park and poured the liquid from the bottles into his mouth, it had a sweet taste, he noted, it was strange that something that tasted so nice could kill so easily. He took another sip and another untill the bottle was empty. He threw the bottle at the bin, it missed and smashed on the floor but Roy was too far gone to notice.

-XxX-

He ambled back to the hospital. He wasn't going to leave Ed alone again. He stumbled past doctors and nurses, getting paler and paler, a small tinge of blue was present in his lips and his fingernails were going purple. He walked up to Ed's room feeling slightly dizzy before standing next to the pale man. Ed stirred and Roy's eyes opened in a delayed look of shock. It was then that he noticed the heart monitor beeping and the noise of an artificial respirator.

"Ed?" Roy said in shock. His voice slurring with the drugs he had taken not ten minutes earlier. Then it suddenly hit him – Ed was alive and he was now committing suicide next to his lover. His knees buckled and he fell across the bed.

"Roy…" Ed mumbled as he was dragged back to consciousness from the weight on his bed. His eyes shot open at the paleness of his lover, Roy's bloodshot eyes stood out starkly against his skin which was now turning a forget-me-not blue.

Roy weakly moved to lie next to Ed and they wrapped an arm around each other.

"I'm sorry…" Roy murmured weakly as dark spots covered his eyes. Ed looked confused as Roy's head fell onto him, Ed fumbled weakly for a pulse in Roy's neck, it grew weaker before stopping completely,

"Roy…" tears were streaming down Ed's face, "Wait for me love…" He strained to pull the I.V. closer as he reached into the cabinet full of his medicine, which had been left unlocked in the panic from his near death earlier. He grabbed the nearest bottle. He grasped the tubing from the breathing mechanism and ripped it from his throat, his throat burned and more tears came to his face. Ed fumbled to open the childproof bottle cap but managed to open the bottle. Ha gave the bottle one glance and poured the liquid down his burning throat.

It took a few moments to drift off as he pulled Roy into one final kiss. He stroked Roy's fine hair, as the room got darker. It was comforting, not scary as he died beside the man he loved, he would see him in a better place in a few moments.

-XxX-

Riza, having heard of Edward's resurrection not half an hour ago decided that she needed to see him alive for herself, she had watched at the young alchemist had gotten weaker at work, before stopping coming all together. Roy's disappearance had followed Ed's and it had come to light that Ed was Roy's boyfriend.

She had nothing against who they loved and was glad that they had both settled down, but was sad that it had taken a terminal illness to find out.

She knocked softly on the door and slowly opened it, ready to close it in case of medical emergency; Riza had never been very good with blood. She smiled at the two laying on the bed, hugging in their sleep. There was something nagging her in the back of her head.

There were a few things out of place she thought with a frown.

A liquid was spilled all down Ed's front and tubes were scattered all over the sterilized floor.

Hawkeye ran over and felt for a pulse in Roy's neck… None, then Ed's… Nothing. Tears ran down her face as tears ran down her face.

She sobbed as she slowly backed out of the room, closing the door softly.

Her best friends were dead.

-XxX-

Please review!


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